


Blue Around the Edges

by Honorable_mention



Series: Through Caverns Measureless to Man [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Blue Spirit Zuko (Avatar), Episode: s01e13 The Blue Spirit, Gen, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Immortal Zuko, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Ursa (Avatar) is a Good Parent, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25459984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honorable_mention/pseuds/Honorable_mention
Summary: The Blue Spirit dies protecting the Avatar and Zuko wakes up in the forest.
Relationships: Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Ursa & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Through Caverns Measureless to Man [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823935
Comments: 22
Kudos: 497





	Blue Around the Edges

There weren’t a lot of things Zuko truly controlled in his life. He couldn’t stop his mother leaving, couldn’t stop himself dying over and over again at the hands of his father and sister. He couldn’t control his banishment. Couldn’t control the thoughts in his head.

But Zuko could control the Blue Spirit.

He’d taken the mask with him when he left the palace. It had been his mother’s, an important part of her theater collection. She’d always been so passionate about the arts, something she’d passed along to Zuko. He couldn’t remember exactly which production the mask had come from (and asking anyone he met raised more eyebrows than it was worth), but he remembered how excited his mother had been to have it. How she’d excitedly rambled on about the mask with Zuko thoroughly enthralled on the seat next to her.

But his mother was gone now. Zuko hadn’t been able to bear leaving all of her things in his banishment. He couldn’t stand the thought of what would happen to them without him. It was better for these things to serve a purpose, to be used for something good, than to sit around collecting dust. Or, even worse, to be burned.

Zuko got ready for the night. He slipped on his deep black clothes. It was strange seeming himself out of the normal reds and golds of the Fire Nation, a bit dissident and surreal. He tried not to contemplate how it made him feel. Those kinds of thoughts were dangerous.

The mask slipped over his head easily and Zuko tried it tightly around his skull, pinching some of his hair in the process.

He looked into the mirror. He didn’t see Zuko looking back at him, only the Blue Spirit. The anonymity was beautiful. 

He slipped through the forest, careful not to upset a group of croaking frogs or a flock of screaming birds. Mist hung heavy on the trees and dampened his clothes. Zuko was thankful for the extra layer of protection it offered.

It was shockingly easy to break into the base. Too easy. Zuko was suspicious at first, but his time as a banished prince had taught him that the Fire Nation’s security was concerningly lacking. If they didn’t usually recognize Zuko when he didn’t have his mask, scar and all, there wasn’t much hope. He’d have to fix that if he ever got the chance. Not that he would at the rate his life was going.

He crept through the halls, keeping to the back corridors where no one walked, even climbing on the ceiling when he had to.

He knew the Avatar was here. It was imperative that he find him and set him free. Otherwise Zuko would never be able to restore his honor. 

It took a few minutes, his heart pounding in an exhilarating manner the whole time, before Zuko found a group of guards stupid enough to loudly discuss both the floor plan of the base as well as the location of their most valuable prisoner.

It was treasonous what he was doing, but Zuko was already damned for his crimes, even the ones no one else knew about. The crimes of incorrect thought, of dirty ideas, of painful emotions.

What was one extra offensive on a laundry list record? Zuko tried to convince himself he was fine as he knocked the last guard out and took the man’s keys, unlocking the door to the room where the Avatar was being kept.

The kid, no, the threat, looked pathetic. His arms and legs were shackled to stop him bending. It must have been painful being kept that way. Zuko almost winced.

He took out his blades and set the Avatar free. The kid thanked him and immediately dropped to the ground trying to catch some, well, Zuko wasn’t exactly sure.

“Are those frogs?” He asked, watching the Avatar chase some poor creature with only it’s back legs moving across the floor.

“Frozen frogs, yes.” The Avatar continued to shove the frogs into his bags as he caught them.

“Why do you need them? Can’t you just get more later?”

“They’re for my friends. They’re really sick and they need these to get better.”

Zuko nodded. “Uh huh. That makes sense.” It did not make sense.

“Here, I got the last one. We should get going now.” The Avatar got off the ground and Zuko took a good look at him. Outside of combat the first thing Zuko noticed about the kid was how short he was.

“Come on, follow me.” Zuko crept through the halls he had come out of before. He was glad to see the guards he’d knocked out before still unconscious and breathing. He beckoned the Avatar forward. Every so often he’d have to check behind his back to make sure the Avatar was still there. His footsteps were just so quiet.

As Zuko watched the Avatar fight, Zuko was once again glad he’d managed to survive this long. The kid was powerful. If he wanted to he could kill Zuko, and that thought was absolutely terrifying.

They were almost out of the gate when Zuko realized they were in serious trouble. There was only one way he could think of to solve this problem.

He grabbed the Avatar and pulled him into his chest. He brought the knife up to the Avatar’s neck, pressed just enough that everyone knew he was serious but not enough to hurt the Avatar more than necessary. 

“What are you doing?” The Avatar asked.

“Trust me,” Zuko hissed from beneath the mask.

Just as Zuko had predicted the gates of the base slowly began to lift. Zuko moved as fast as he could outside. If he could only get to the fog he’d be safe. He only had to get to the fog.

The thing was, Zuko wasn’t afraid of dying. He’d done that plenty of times before. What really scared him was what his father might do to him as a punishment. He knew his son couldn’t die, not for long, so he wouldn’t let any mercy slip through. Zuko couldn’t risk it.

He was so close, the mist climbing up past his ankles. Only ten more feet and he would be safe.

The first arrow hit him in the eye and the second hit him in the chest. He fell down hard and fast, his back slamming into the lightly-packed dirt.

  
  


He woke up back in the forest, or at least a version of it. A dead man’s version.

Frantically he searched for the tall man. It wasn’t that Zuko feared death, just this specific version. The version where he could wake up to a lifetime of torture. The version where his father could get to him. He couldn’t die. Not yet, not without the Avatar.

“Zuko. Please calm down,” the man said. He placed a hand on Zuko’s shoulder. If it had been anyone else at any other time, Zuko might have flinched. But he didn’t.

“I can’t come back, not there. My father-”

“Calm down. The Avatar’s a good young man. He’ll take care of you.”

“How can you be sure?” Zuko asked, trying not to let the panic seep through his words.

“Have you not learned to trust my advice by now?” The man patted a root that poked through the soil next to him. “Here, sit down. Relax. You had a tough day today.”

“I betrayed my country, more than I ever have before.”

“But did it feel right to you?” The man asked.

Zuko didn’t reply.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to answer.”

  
  


Zuko woke up in the forest of the living. The Avatar was sitting next to him, rambling about something Zuko was too tired to parse out.

“Oh thank goodness you’re alive,” the Avatar said. “How are you feeling?”

“Terrible.”

“I can imagine it wouldn’t be fun, waking up to this. Your wounds looked terrible and,” the Avatar said, beginning to ramble again.

He looked so young beneath the trees. For a moment Zuko felt bad attacking him, but that guilt only lasted a moment.

The fight was brief. Zuko was still hur and the Avatar was as reluctant as ever to do any real damage.

As he watched the Avatar recede into the distance, croaking bag of frogs over his shoulder, Zuko hoped that the Avatar wouldn’t hold this against him.

No, he corrected himself, he didn’t care what the Avatar thought about him.

The Avatar was nothing more than a key to rediscover everything he’d lost in the Fire Nation.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay guys! This is pretty much the end of this series unless anyone has something they’d really like to see, in which case I am a hundred percent down with writing more (I’m just kind of out of ideas, not gonna lie).
> 
> I hope you guys have enjoyed reading this series as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Thank you!! :))


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